Maternal protein restriction is often associated with structural and functional sequelae in offspring, particularly affecting growth and renal-cardiovascular function. However, there is little understanding as to whether hypertension and kidney disease occur because of a primary nephron deficit or whether controlling postnatal growth can result in normal renal-cardiovascular phenotypes. To investigate this, female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either a low-protein (LP, 8.4% protein) or normal-protein (NP, 19.4% protein) diet prior to mating and until offspring were weaned at postnatal day (PN) 21. Offspring were then fed a non ‘growth’ (4.6% fat) which ensured that catch-up growth did not occur. Offspring growth was determined by weight and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Nephron number was determined at PN21 using the disector-fractionator method. Kidney function was measured at PN180 and PN360 using clearance methods. Blood pressure was measured at PN360 using radio-telemetry. Body weight was similar at PN1, but by PN21 LP offspring were 39% smaller than controls (Pdiet < 0.001). This difference was due to proportional changes in lean muscle, fat, and bone content. LP offspring remained smaller than NP offspring until PN360. In LP offspring, nephron number was 26% less in males and 17% less in females, than NP controls (Pdiet < 0.0004). Kidney function was similar across dietary groups and sexes at PN180 and PN360. Blood pressure was similar in LP and NP offspring at PN360. These findings suggest that remaining on a slow growth trajectory after exposure to a suboptimal intrauterine environment does not lead to the development of kidney dysfunction and hypertension.

Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) represent an ongoing problem for all clinics. Children’s clinics have waiting rooms that include toys and activities to entertain children, possibly representing reservoirs for HAIs. This study focuses on a newly constructed children’s outpatient clinic associated with a teaching hospital. We studied waiting room bacterial colonization of floors and play devices from the last phase of construction through 6 months of clinical use. Methods: Waiting room areas on the first 2 floors of the facility were studied due to high patient volume in those areas. In total, 16 locations were sampled: 11 on floors and 5 on play items. Using sterile double-transport swabs, all locations were sampled on 5 separate occasions over 2 months during the last phase of construction and 13 times over 6 months after the clinic was opened. After collection swabs were placed on ice, transported to a microbiology lab, and used to inoculate Hardy Diagnostics Cdiff Banana Broth (for Clostridium difficile - Cdiff), CHROM MRSA agar (for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus - MRSA), Pseudomonas isolation agar (for Pseudomonas spp and P. aeruginosa), and tryptic soy agar to detect Bacillus spp. Media were incubated for 48 hours at 37°C and were scored for bacterial presence based on observation of colonies or change in the medium. Results: During the construction phase, waiting-room-floor bacterial colonies were dominated by Bacillus spp, and first-floor waiting rooms had nearly 7 times more colonies than those on the second floor (P < .05). A similar pattern was observed for C. difficile and MRSA. No Pseudomonas spp were observed during construction. Once patients were present, Bacillus spp contamination dropped for the first floor, but increased for the second floor. All other bacterial types (C. difficile, MRSA, Pseudomonas spp, and P. aeruginosa) increased on the second floor after the clinic opened (eg, from 23% to 42% for C. difficile and from 7% to 46% for MRSA; P < .05). The play devices showed small increases in bacterial load after clinic opening, most notably Pseudomonas spp. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that a shift from bacterial species associated with soil (eg, Bacillus spp) toward species commonly associated with humans occurred in waiting rooms after construction in this children’s outpatient clinic. Increases for MRSA, Pseudomonas spp, and P. aeruginosa were linked to patient presence. These data suggest that patients, their families, and clinic staff transport bacteria into clinic waiting rooms. This outpatient clinic environmental contamination may increase potential for HAIs and may represent a target for intervention.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None

Background: The bacteria that inhabit outpatient healthcare facilities influence patient outcomes and recovery, although the diversity and quantity of these bacterial communities is largely unknown. Whether differences in bacterial presence exist in individual medical specialty units of an outpatient clinic is also largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare bacterial species found in the general medicine and pulmonary units of an outpatient children’s clinic associated with a teaching hospital. Methods: In total, 6 locations (4 floor sites, counters, air ducts) were sampled in 3 rooms in the pulmonary (PUL) unit and 3 rooms in the general medicine (GM) unit on 13 days over a 6-month period. Sterile double transport swabs were utilized, transported on ice to a microbiology lab, and used to inoculate Hardy Diagnostics Cdiff Banana Broth (for Clostridium difficile), CHROM MRSA agar (for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA]), eosin methylene blue (Levine-type, for Lac+ gram negatives [GN]), and Pseudomonas isolation agar (for Pseudomonas spp and P. aeruginosa [PS and PSA]). Media were incubated for 48 hours at 37°C and were scored for bacterial presence based on colonial observation. Results: The presence of bacteria isolated from GM and PUL units differed by species and location. Based on the percentage of positive swabs, the presence of GN was widespread in both units (Fig 1). Additionally, bacterial presence was greatest on the floors (GN ranged from 72% to 85% on floors in the 2 units), whereas counters had fewer positive swabs (GN ranged from 23% to 38% on counters), and swabs from return air ducts rarely led to bacterial growth. The 1 case in which swabs from the PUL unit resulted in higher levels of bacterial growth than for the GM unit was for PSA (GM, 8%; PUL, 13%). C. difficile detection was the same on both units (ie, 35% of floor samples showed contamination). Conclusions: The levels of environmental bacterial presence observed for these clinic units differed in some cases by unit and ranged from not detectable to very high levels. Detection of C. difficile on 35% of floor samples in both units could be problematic. Additionally, for the PUL unit, contamination of 13% of floor samples by PSA should raise concerns because many patients in this clinic have cystic fibrosis (CF). Although many CF patients are colonized by PSA, others may potentially contract an infection by this pathogen from the clinical environment. This observation supports current infection control recommendations for CF patients in outpatient settings.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None

The high fat content in Western diets probably affects placental function during pregnancy with potential consequences for the offspring in the short and long term. The aim of the present study was to compare genome-wide placental gene expression between rat dams fed a high-fat diet (HFD) and those fed a control diet for 3 weeks before conception and during gestation. Gene expression was measured by microarray and pathway analysis was performed. Gene expression differences were replicated by real-time PCR and protein expression was assessed by Western blot analysis. Placental and fetal weights at E17.25 were not altered by exposure to the maternal HFD. Gene pathways targeting placental growth, blood supply and chemokine signalling were up-regulated in the placentae of dams fed the HFD. The up-regulation in messenger RNA expression for five genes Ptgs2 (fatty acid cyclo-oxidase 2; COX2), Limk1 (LIM domain kinase 1), Pla2g2a (phospholipase A2), Itga1 (integrin α-1) and Serpine1 was confirmed by real-time PCR. Placental protein expression for COX2 and LIMK was also increased in HFD-fed dams. In conclusion, maternal HFD feeding alters placental gene expression patterns of placental growth and blood supply and specifically increases the expression of genes involved in arachidonic acid and PG metabolism. These changes indicate a placental response to the altered maternal metabolic environment.

Sensorimotor inhibition, or the ability to filter out excessive or irrelevant information, theoretically supports a variety of higher-level cognitive functions. Impaired inhibition may be associated with increased impulsive and risky behavior in everyday life. Individuals infected with HIV frequently show impairment on tests of neurocognitive function, but sensorimotor inhibition in this population has not been studied and may be a contributor to the profile of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Thirty-seven HIV-infected individuals (15 with HAND) and 48 non-infected comparison subjects were assessed for prepulse inhibition (PPI), an eyeblink startle paradigm measuring sensorimotor gating. Although HIV status alone was not associated with PPI deficits, HIV-positive participants meeting criteria for HAND showed impaired PPI compared to cognitively intact HIV-positive subjects. In HIV-positive subjects, PPI was correlated with working memory but was not associated with antiretroviral therapy or illness factors. In conclusion, sensorimotor disinhibition in HIV accompanies deficits in higher-order cognitive functions, although the causal direction of this relationship requires investigation. Subsequent research on the role of sensorimotor gating on decision-making and risk behaviors in HIV may be indicated. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–9)

A study has been made of the seasonal and other variations in the contents of fat, water and total solids (other than fat) of the flesh of herring. The herring studied were mainly from Scottish and Shetland waters.

Various races of herring, differing anatomically and with different spawning seasons, are considered separately.For each, the observed changes in chemical composition are considered in relation to the season of the year and the feeding and spawning cycles of the fish.

During May and June there is a rapid rise in the fat content of herring (demonstrated for some races and inferred for the rest). This is correlated with a period of intensive feeding. After the attainment of maximal values in July there is a fall to minimal values in April. The rapidity of the fall depends on the spawning season, a relatively high fat content being maintained until spawning takes place. During spawning there is a rapid fall in the fat content, due, in part at least, to cessation of feeding.

In the “Catalogue of Type Fossils in the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge”, an account was given of all the types and described specimens known to be in the Museum at the end of November, 1891. The work is here continued to December 31st, 1892. The additions given consist of (1) Types presented during the year 1892; (2) Specimens described during the year; (3) Specimens which were in the Museum at the time of publication of the Catalogue but which were not then known to be types.

The genus Desorella was founded by Cotteau in 1855 to include four species from the Corallian named D. icaunensis, D. Orbignyana, D. elata, and D. Drogiaca, and one from the Neocomian—D. incisa. The first and the last of these five species were subsequently shown to belong to the genus Pyrina, the second was placed by Etallon in a new genus, Pseudodesorella, whilst the fourth has been referred to Hyboclypeus. So that of the five species originally regarded as belonging to Desorella, one only, D. elata, is left in that genus. Another species, described in 1862 as Desorella Guerangeri, was afterwards shown to be a Pyrina. Cotteau accepted these modifications, and, in 1873, gave an emended diagnosis of the genus, naming as the type Desorella elata, and describing another species, D. Grasi. M. Jules Lambert is of the opinion that Pachyclypeus semiglobus (Goldftiss) should be placed in the genus Desorella.

People talk about rats deserting a sinking ship, but they don't usually ask where the rats go. Perhaps this is only because the answer is so obvious: of course, most of the rats climb aboard the sounder ships, the ships that ride high in the water despite being laden with rich cargoes of cheese and grain and other things rats love, the ships that bring prosperity to ports like eighteenth-century Königsberg and firms such as Green & Motherby. By making the insulting comparison - as I am in the course of doing – between us Kant scholars and a horde of noxious vermin, my more or less transparent aim is to mitigate, or at least to distract attention from, the collective immodesty of what I am saying about us. For my point is that, in the past half-century or so, Kant studies has become a very prosperous ship indeed. Its success has even been the chief thing that has buoyed all its sister ships in the fleet of modern philosophy, most of which are also doing very well.

White dwarf stars provide important boundary conditions for the understanding of stellar evolution. An adequate understanding of even these simple stars is impossible without detailed knowledge of their interiors. PG1346+082, an interacting binary white dwarf system, provides a unique opportunity to view the interior of one degenerate as it is brought to light in the accretion disk of the second star as the primary strips material from its less massive companion (see Wood et at. 1987).

PG1346+082 is a photometric variable with a four magnitude variation over a four to five day quasi-period. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the light curve shows a complex, time-dependent structure of harmonics. PG1346+082 exhibits flickering – the signature of mass transfer. The optical spectra of the system contain weak emission features during minimum and broad absorption at all other times. This could be attributed to pressure broadening in the atmosphere of a compact object, or to a combination of pressure broadening and doppler broadening in a disk surrounding the compact accretor. No hydrogen lines are observed and the spectra are dominated by neutral helium. The spectra also display variable asymmetric line profiles.